Books by Lawrence Grobel
Climbing Higher
by Montel Williams, Lawrence Grobel
Television icon and New York Times bestselling author Montel Williams reveals his true story of struggle and triumph in this frank and compelling memoir.
In 1999, after almost twenty years of symptoms, Montel Williams, a decorated naval officer and Emmy Award-winning talk show host, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Like others suffering from the devastating disease, he was struck with denial, fear, depression, and anger—but he is battling back. Graced with strong values, courage, and hard-won wisdom, he shares his insights in this powerful book on the divergent roads a life can take, and recounts how he rose to meet the challenges he's faced. Surprising, searing, and deeply personal, Climbing Higher is as honest and inspiring as its author.
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Al Pacino
For more than a quarter century, Al Pacino has spoken freely and deeply with acclaimed journalist and bestselling author Lawrence Grobel on subjects as diverse as childhood, acting, and fatherhood. Here, for the first time, are the complete conversations and shared observations between the actor and the writer; the result is an intimate and revealing look at one of the most accomplished, and private, artists in the world.
Pacino grew up sharing a three-room apartment in the Bronx with nine people in what he describes as his "New York Huckleberry Finn" childhood. Raised mostly by his grandparents and his mother, Pacino began drinking at age thirteen. Shortly after he was admitted to the renowned High School for Performing Arts, his classmates nicknamed him "Marlon," after Marlon Brando, even though Pacino didn't know who Brando was. Renowned acting coach Charlie Laughton saw Pacino when he was nineteen in the stairwell of a Bronx tenement, and the first words out of Laughton's mouth were "You are going to be a star." And so began a fabled, lifelong friendship that nurtured Al through years of not knowing where his next meal would come from until finally -- at age twenty-six -- he landed his first salaried acting job.
Grobel and Pacino leave few stones unturned, touching on the times when Pacino played piano in jazz clubs until four a.m. before showing up on the set of Scarecrow a few hours later for a full day's work; when he ate Valium like candy at the Academy Awards; and when he realized he had been in a long pattern of work and drink.
As the pivotal character in The Godfather trilogy and the cult classic Scarface, Pacino has enshrined himself in film history. He's worked with most of Hollywood's brightest luminaries such as Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, Michael Mann, Norman Jewison, Brian De Palma, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Gene Hackman, Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Hilary Swank, and Robin Williams, among many others. He was nominated for eight Academy Awards before winning the Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Scent of a Woman. Pacino still seems to prefer his work onstage to film and, if he's moved by a script or play, is quick to take parts in independent productions.
Al Pacino is an intensely personal window into the life of an artist concerned more with the process of his art than with the fruits of his labor, a creative genius at the peak of his artistic powers who, after all these years, still longs to grow and learn more about his craft. And, for now, it's as close to a memoir as we're likely to get.
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Barbra Streisand. Steve Schapiro and Lawrence Schiller
by Lawrence Grobel, Patt Morrison
In 1970 Barbra Streisand published a story in Life magazine titled "Who Am I Anyway?" It was the very question two leading photojournalists of the day--Steve Schapiro and Lawrence Schiller--were also asking as they photographed her during her first five years in Hollywood, working to get beneath the veneer and capture "the real Barbra."
Brimming with photographs, stories, and behind-the-scenes shots from Schapiro and Schiller, and previously available as a limited edition, this is a must-have collection for any Streisand fan. All the best movies of Streisand's first Hollywood decade are here: Funny Girl, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, The Way We Were, The Owl and the Pussycat, Up the Sandbox, Funny Lady, and A Star Is Born. So too are her loves, directors, confidants, and costars: Elliott Gould, William Wyler, Sydney Pollack, Vincente Minnelli, Cis Corman, Omar Sharif, Kris Kristofferson, and, of course, Robert Redford.
Through it all a picture emerges not of a singer who could act, but of an actress who could sing, write, direct, dance, and do just about anything she put her mind to.
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